This application claims the priority of German patent application Serial No. 198 05 697.4 filed Feb. 6, 1998. The disclosure of the German patent application, as well as that of each US and foreign patent and patent application mentioned in the specification of the present application, is incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to improvements in apparatus for transferring flexible strip-shaped objects or commodities (such as labels, blanks, tabs or the like) from the underside of a magazine (e.g., an upright or a downwardly sloping chute or duct) to a conveyor, e.g., to a continuously or intermittently driven rotary drum-shaped conveyor in a machine for packing plain or filter cigarettes or other smokers"" products in a production line.
For example, the apparatus of the present invention can be utilized with advantage for the delivery of revenue labels to successive soft or hinged-lid cigarette packets in machines which confine arrays of (e.g., twenty) plain or filter cigarettes in blanks made of metallic foil, cardboard, paper, transparent platic foil or in a combination of two or more such blanks.
Apparatus of the type to which the present invention pertains can be utilized with equal or similar advantage for the application of adhesive-coated or un-coated labels, stamps or other flexible objects to all kinds of containers or receptacles as well as for the application of postage stamps to letters, post cards or the like.
Reference may be had, for example, to published German patent application Serial No. 41 33 404 A1 which describes and shows an apparatus for the application of flexible labels or the like to various types of products including cigarette packets or other block-shaped or otherwise configurated goods.
A revenue stamp or label is normally applied to a cigarette packet in such a way that the packet becomes tamper-proof, i.e., that the revenue stamp or label must be damaged or destroyed by the person who is in the process of gaining access to the contents of the packet. This is intended to ensure that the label or stamp cannot be reused by the manufacturer of cigarette packets or of packets or containers for other types of products for which taxes or duties are payable to Federal authorities, to State authorities and/or to local authorities.
For example, a revenue label can be applied to the overlapping flaps and/or tucks at one end of a flexible transparent outermost envelope which is normally provided with a tear strip. Alternatively, the revenue label can be applied in part to the exterior of a closed hinged lid and in part to the adjacent part of the main portion of a hard cigarette packet which contains a housing made of cardboard or the like so that the label must be destroyed when the lid is pivoted to open position in order to enable the purchaser of the hinged-lid packet of plain or filter cigarettes, cigarillos or the like to gain access to the contents, e.g. , an array of twenty cigarettes in the customary so-called quincunx formation. The same holds true when the revenue labels are applied to packets which contain arrays of five, ten or twentyone cigarettes.
A modern cigarette packing machine can turn out cigarette packets at a very high rate. By way of example, the so-called COMPAS 500 cigarette packer (distributed by Topack Verpackungstechnik GmbH, Grabauer Strasse 49, D-21493 Schwarzenbek, Federal Republic Germany) can turn out up to and well in excess of 500 cigarette packets per minute. In such mass-producing machines, revenue labels must be supplied at a very high frequency and with an extremely high degree of accuracy and reproducibility in order to reduce to a minimum the number of rejects which are discovered during the final quality review of the finished packets.
Additional problems arise when the labels are relatively small or extremely small because this evidently aggravates the problem of reliably transporting such objects between one or more magazines or makers of labels and one or more processing stations, e.g., past an adhesive applying paster and into a cigarette wrapping or packing machine (such as the aforementioned COMPAS 500 machine) or an overwrapping machine (such as that known as Pewo-Fold overwrapper, also distributed by Topack).
An object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which can manipulate labels, stamps and like flexible objects with a high degree of accuracy regardless of whether such objects must be supplied to a consuming machine at a low, medium high or extremely high frequency.
Another object of the invention is to construct and assemble the apparatus in such a way that the flexible objects are treated gently regardless of the frequency at which such objects are furnished to a cigarette packing or another labelling machine.
A further object of the invention is to provide the above outlined apparatus with novel and improved means for transferring successive flexible objects from one or more sources to a conveyor, e.g., to a conveyor in a cigarette packing machine.
An additional object of the invention is to provide the apparatus with novel and improved means for reliably holding successive flexible objects in optimum positions during lateral, orbital, linear or any other required movements in the path between an object making or storing station and a device which receives and further transports and/or otherwise manipulates successive objects of a short or long series of such commodities.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved object transferring device which can be utilized in the above outlined apparatus.
A further object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved synchronizing system for use in the above outlined apparatus to ensure predictable and reliable cooperation between various moving parts of the above outlined apparatus.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a cigarette packing machine which embodies at least one apparatus of the above outlined character.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved method of manipulating adhesive-coated or uncoated labels or analogous flexible objects between one or more sources and one or more consuming or processing machines.
A further object of the invention is to provide a method of removing successive flexible objects from the bottom region of an upright or downwardly sloping magazine to one or more processing stations in such a way that each of a short or long series of objects is adequately controlled during each and every stage of the manipulation.
The invention is embodied in an apparatus for delivering successive flexible sheet-like commodities (such as labels, tabs, stamps, blanks or the like) from a source (such as an upright or downwardly inclined magazine) to a conveyor which is spaced apart from the source. The improved apparatus comprises a suction generating device (such as a pump, a blower or the like), a transfer member which is rotatable about a predetermined axis and has at least one air-admitting inlet, means for moving the transfer member between a first location at the source and a second location at the conveyor, and means for rotating the transfer member about the aforementioned axis relative to the moving member between at least one first position, in which the at least one inlet communicates with the suction generating device to attract a commodity at the first location and during movement from the first location to the second location, and at least one second position at the second location in which the suction generating device is at least partially sealed from the at least one inlet to thus enable the conveyor to accept commodities from the transfer member.
The source can comprise a magazine for a stack of superimposed commodities including a lowermost commodity at the first location.
The conveyor is preferably provided with suction ports which serve to attract commodities at the second location.
The improved apparatus can further comprise air flow regulating means which is provided on the moving means, which is connected to the suction generating device, and which defines at least one path for the flow of air from the at least one inlet at the first location and during movement of the transfer member from the first location toward the second location.
The at least one inlet can be provided at the peripheral surface of the transfer member.
The conveyor is or can constitute a rotary conveyor having a peripheral surface with circumferentially spaced apart portions for reception of commodities at and for removal of commodities from the second location. Such conveyor can be provided with a plurality of platforms, and the aforementioned portions of the peripheral surface of the rotary conveyor are then provided on the platforms.
The moving means can comprise a carriage which is reciprocable along a substantially straight path to thus move the transfer member between the first and second locations.
The means for rotating the transfer member can comprise means for turning the transfer member about the aforementioned axis in a first direction during movement of the transfer member from the first location and in a second direction at least substantially counter to the first direction during movement of the transfer member from the second location. The means for rotating the transfer member can receive motion from the moving means.
The apparatus preferably further comprise means for synchronizing the operation of the moving means with the operation of the rotating means.
Still further, the improved apparatus can comprise a valve which is provided on the moving means and is arranged to regulate the flow of air from the at least one inlet to the suction generating device.
The axis of the transfer member is or can be at least substantially horizontal, and one of the first and second locations is or can be disposed at a level above the other of the first and second locations.
In accordance with a presently preferred embodiment, the aforementioned source includes at least one magazine for a supply of commodities in the form of labels.
The at least one inlet can include a suction port which is provided in an arcuate surface of the transfer member.
The peripheral surface of the transfer member can be provided with a recess which confronts the source when the transfer member is disposed at the first location, and the at least one inlet is arranged to draw air from the recess when the recess is adjacent the source. The peripheral surface can include a concave portion which bounds the aforementioned recess, and the transfer member can be provided with at least one additional inlet which communicates with the suction generating device during movement of the transfer member from the first location to the second location. In such apparatus, the aforementioned valve is arranged to seal one of (a) the at least one inlet and (b) the at least one additional inlet from the suction generating device when the other of the (a) at least one inlet and (b) the at least one additional inlet communicates with the suction generating device. The at least one additional inlet can be located ahead of the at least one inlet, as seen in the direction of rotation of the transfer member during movement from the first location toward the second location.
The novel features which are considered as characteristic of the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The improved apparatus itself, however, both as to its construction and the modes of assembling and operating the same, together with numerous additional important and advantageous features and attributes thereof, will be best understood upon perusal of the following detailed description of certain presently preferred specific embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.